Thanksgiving AND New Year's?! Whew! - Update 3/12 Pg. 17

I haven't been on in a while, and I'm very excited to start a new trip report and actually finish!

I am super excited because I made a last minute decision and just yesterday booked a trip that will occur in a little more then a month. Let me fill you guys in a little on the background on why this trip is occurring.

Just earlier this month I had to say goodbye to my oldest furbaby Hobbes.

It was a very quick thing, and happened before I even had time to process the information. I took her to the vet because she seemed to be heaving a hairball that she couldn't pass. It went on for almost an entire night, so I took the day off of work to get her checked out. The vet took xrays and checked her out and said that she found nothing wrong on the xrays and that it was possible that she just had a really bad hairball. She seemed okay, so I took her home.

As soon as I got home, Hobbes went directly under the bed and would not come out. She would not eat, drink, or use the litter box. I thought perhaps she was angry with me. When she didn't come out for the entire day, I knew something was wrong. So, I took her back to the emergency vet again. They ran bloodwork and stated that the bloodwork suggested that she may have pancreatitis. While it's not the easiest to get rid of, the vet said that it is completely curable with fluids and antibiotics. However, she did say that she suggested an ultrasound to see exactly what is going on, and that they would keep her overnight on fluids and get her ultrasound when the doctor who performs those was in the next day. I did that and was told the doctor would call.

I got the call the next day, and my worst fears were confirmed. She had a mass in her abdomen that punctured a part of her gall bladder, causing fluid to leak into her abdomen, and that the fluid was the color of root beer. He told me that there was surgery, but the survival rate was very low, and that if they performed the surgery, he was still afraid that the mass was cancer. I was in such shock, because she had been fine. However, the doctor said that he knew it was a tough decision, but that with the limited success of the surgery, he suggested putting her down. He told me that surgery without success would be even more heartbreaking, and I agreed with that.

So, I had to make the decision to put my beautiful baby to sleep. It was the hardest thing that I've ever done.

This all happened in the course of three days, so it was very hard to process. She was only 9 years old, and she was the first cat I ever had. Needless to say, things have not been the same without her.

Sorry if I made anyone cry, as I know many on the DIS have furbabies that they love and cherish just like I do.

Well, the one thing that makes me happiest is Disney, and ever since Hobbes passing, I haven't been able to get Disney off my mind. I am stir crazy at this point, even though I have a trip planned with my brother in February. I know it's because of Hobbes. So, I started puttering around online to see what I could find for Thanksgiving weekend. This would be a whirlwind trip for me, because I do not have any vacation time left, so my trip would have to be over the four day Thanksgiving weekend only. Crazy, I know.

I managed to find an affordable flight through Southwest from Milwaukee to Orlando, which surprised me, because I thought it would be difficult. But now the question was who would go with me? I'll tell you who...

MY MOM!!!!

If you have read any of my trip reports before, you will know that my mom is my best friend. She and I have a great relationship that I would not trade for anything. The only thing would be convincing her to go along and seeing if my dad could be without her.

That brings me to another thing. My dad is awesome. He lets my mom and I take trips together without him, just like I go on trips with my dad without my mom. He had absolutely no problem with this scenario, and even said to my mom later that he knew I needed a getaway because of the difficulty I had with Hobbes passing. My dad is amazing!

We were already planning on purchasing annual passes for our trips next year, so the pass issue was no problem. Now the deal was finding lodging. My parents are DVC members, and normally we use points. They are also generous enough to frequently allow me to use points, like I will be in February with my brother. However, we need the rest of their points for our upcoming July trip. You see, it is going to be my parents 40th wedding anniversary next year, and we are taking a family trip with all of the kids and grandkids. So, we need all the points for that. That will be a grand gathering to write about for sure, and don't worry, I will!

So, Dad gave the okay, and now I needed to find lodging. Where else would we stay? I favorite of DIS.....POP Century!

I called reservations and proceeded to make my plans. I secured four nights, 11/24-11/28 at POP Century. I got the passholder discount for one night only (because of the holiday, which I understood), and we also opted to add quick service dining. I know that with only three full days to be there, we agreed that we want to fly by the seat of our pants and not have to worry about ressies at table service restaurants.

So, flight booked, room booked, food paid for, I was done! I couldn't believe that this was happening and that we were actually going to be doing this. I am so excited to have this with my mom, and we are going to have a blast. Please join in on the fun with me! I would appreciate any recommendations you have regarding a room request for POP. I was thinking the 60's building, and I was going to request 1st or 2nd floor, because my mom is very very afraid of heights, and has a very hard time with 3rd and 4th floors in hotels that are outdoors. Let me know thoughts on that.

Also, I take any suggestions on what everyone likes for counter service. I have my favorites, but I'm always open to everyone's thoughts!

Also, since I forgot, this is me, Danielle:

Thanks for reading and I hope you stay for this crazy ride! I will post more later with some more details about my mom and I.

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So, I figured I would post a little bit of information about myself and my traveling partner, and also with a small update surrounding the trip.

I am 29 years old, I work full time as an accounting supervisor at a catalog company, and I am going to school full time to get my masters degree to take the CPA. Cross your fingers for me, I will be graduated in January 2011! It feels like I have been in school forever, and I'm ready for it to be over!

I have loved Disney since my first trip at the age of four. It's my favorite vacation destination. My parents are DVC members, and have been since 2001. They are so awesome and generous and they allow me to use their points often, and I can't thank them enough for that.

I love to read. It's my favorite thing to do, and I truly feel that it's a dying hobby. I really wish it wasn't. I have two fur babies, Nanook and Tigger.

Tigger

Nanook

They are both boogers, and they have a hate/hate relationship with each other. Oh well, nothing I can do about that.

As mentioned above in my prior post, I just lost my other furbaby Hobbes, and this trip is in commemoration of her. I also mentioned that I absolutely love my parents, and I can't thank them enough for being the awesome parents that they are. I recently took them to Paris and Belgium because next year, they are going to be celebrating their 40th wedding, anniversary, and I wanted to take my mom back home for the first time in over 40 years. My mom immigrated here when she was 15 years old from Belgium, and unfortunately it was not in the cards for her to go home before, and I really wanted to be there for her to do that. So, we had an awesome time, and guess where we went? Yup, Paris Disneyland! That was a different experience all together.

My mom is ageless (because that's how I view her, and also because I don't think she would appreciate my posting her exact age, but you can kind of figure it out ). She and I have a very strong relationship, and she is the kind of person that I can tell anything to. I love that about her, and I wouldn't trade her for everyone. She also loves to read, but more then that she's a facebook/farmville/cafe world addict! I constantly give her a hard time about this.

So my news today is that to make the trip special, I called and I booked.....the Wishes fireworks dessert party! Woo hoo. Now, let me tell you, there is nothing that I love more then dessert. Now add dessert, fireworks, and Disney, and you have a winning combination! I booked it for Thursday November 25th. We've never done it at Disney World, only the fireworks dessert buffet that they had in Disneyland back in the day for watching Fantasmic! This is a first for us, so I'm very excited. Plus I was able to surprise my mom, to tell her how much I love her.

At this point, I'm just sitting and waiting for my reservation information to come in the mail. And counting down the days for my trip to start!

That's okay, I know I'm still a relative newbie to the DIS boards. I'll grow on you!

Just got news today from my mom that some of our family is going to be down in WDW when we are. They are staying off property in a rented home, but we should be getting together. However, my mom said she was very clear with them.....that she and I are only there for three full days, and we have very strict touring plans.

In other words.......you fit in to my schedule!

No seriously, I hope we can work it out. It will be my aunt, uncle, one single cousin, one married cousin, her husband, her two children from a prior marriage, his two children from a prior marriage, and their son.

So I'm sitting here at my desk working late. Bummer. However, what better way to work late then work on my TR! LOL. Okay, so here is my plan for our three day itinerary. I have never been to WDW for such a brief trip, so this should be interesting.

Departure day, November 24th 2010:
Plane lands at 11:15pm. I couldn't take the day off of work, since I have no time to take! So, we are taking the plane that night right after work. We're flying out of Milwaukee, which is a much nicer airport then O'Hare. It will be our first time flying Southwest. Normally we fly AirTran or Midwest. Kind of excited.

Once we land, it's off to ME, hop a bus, and off to POP!

This is our first time staying at POP, because as DVC members we normally stay on points. I'm excited for this too. Any recommendations on buildings would be appreciated. We are in a preferred building. I was thinking 60's, 1st or 2nd floor. My mom is very afraid of heights, and 3rd and 4th floor hotels that are outside like POP make her very nervous.

As soon as we get to the hotel, it's unpack and off to bed. I'm hoping to be in bed by around 1am, because I want to get up early, and believe me when I tell you, I am not a morning person!

Day 1 November 25, 2010:
OK, so the crowd calendar says to avoid MK on this day, so I'm planning on doing just that. Our plan is:

Up at about 6:30am.

Breakfast at POP at 7:30am

Bus Stop to HS at 8 or 8:15am

As soon as we are able to get in RUN to TSM. I want to grab fastpasses, and then hop in line. I'm expecting that it will still be very crowded on this day, but I'm hoping to do TSM twice. If we only do it once, I'll be okay, not great. After this, what I want to do at HS is:

At a minimum, we need to eat lunch here. I haven't decided yet where to eat, so I'm open to suggestions. We're on the quick service dining plan, so it's counter service all the way.

I'm hoping to be done with all we want to do at HS by about 5pm. Here's why: I bought tickets to the fireworks dessert party. I also would really like to eat dinner at POP, because they're food court is GINORMOUS! So, my thought is that if we leave HS (OMG totally almost called it MGM) at about 5pm, we can make it back to POP no later then 6pm. Eat dinner at the resort, and then leave again at about 7pm. The fireworks dessert party begins checkin at 8pm, and let me tell you. I am eating all the dessert I can that night! I am a chocolate freak! I love chocolate so much, you have no idea! It seriously makes me .

So that's my plan for day one. What does everyone think? I actually have to do work now, but hopefully I'll be on in a little bit to post my thoughts for day 2 and 3.

Allllllllrighty then! I'm here to put together my itinerary and plans for day two. Here we gooooooooooo.....

Park: Magic Kingdom

First thing: Get up obnoxiously early. I am in a weight loss competition at work. The first one we did I lost 26 pounds. I haven't gained any of it back, but I still have a long way to go. That said, I really need to make a conscious effort to work out. When I'm home, I work out three to four days a week. On vacation......not so much. I really need to learn to work out on vacation. So, my thought is to go jogging around POP for about a 1/2 an hour in the morning. I think, no, I KNOW I can do this!

After all of this getting ready business, I want to head to the Magic Kingdom early, so I can in turn hop on the monorail to go to the Poly. Destination? Captain Cook's for Tonga Toast. It's Tonga Toast, it's a CS credit, what more can you ask for?

After that, I'm hoping to make it to MK at opening. Let me first let you guys know, I'm a fast eater. I need minimal time to actually eat my food. 15 minutes does it for me. It's not healthy, but it works when you running a tight schedule!

Our plan is to stay here all day long. If we leave early, I think the only thing we would do potentially is go to Downtown Disney. Although, considering the time of year, I may avoid Downtown Disney at all costs. We'll just have to say. My must do's here:

Our places to eat on this day. Columbia Harbor House or Cosmic Rays, or both depending on how long we end up staying. My guess is we'll stay the whole day, so we'll probably do both.

If we feel inspired, we will either go Downtown after the Magic Kingdom, or go to Epcot for extra magic hours. I'll let my mom make the decision on this one when we're there. I love just walking around Epcot, so I may even make this the night to go to Epcot to wander. We'll see.

I got my travel packet today. One thing that I had noticed when I had received my confirmation email after making my reservation is that they spelled our last name wrong. Only off by one letter, but still. I called them and advised them of the mistake. This is the one area that I have a complaint about the reservation system being automated. My last name starts with V, so normally, when I talk to a person, I say V as in Victor to clarify. Yup, the automated system thought it was a B. Oh well. The change was made internally, but when I got the packet information, it still had the B. Not the end of the world, I just think that it's funny. We got our luggage tags, our vouchers, and all that fun stuff. It's so exciting!

So that would make up day two for us. Next up, day three, our final day itinerary.

Hi, Danielle!! I'm really sorry about Hobbes...I'm a veterinarian here in Brasil and I know how difficult it is to cope w/ the loss of a loved animal...but let's talk of happier times...I'm really interested on reading your plans...so far, it seems great!!.I also LOVE Carousel of Progress, one of my favorites, too!!.I'm going to WDW in december,I'm really excited!!! Hope you have a nice trip,can't wait to read your TR!!! Tania

Hi, Danielle -- you have a great Pre-trip report! Which is to say, you've got all the makings of having a future Trip Report, and maybe that's why you have some readers but not many post'ers... If you had posted on the Pre-trip report area, you might have had more responses on what you were planning to do, since people reading those threads are interested in the planning aspect.

I'll admit I SHOULD be there myself, since I've made some plans like you (3-4 days, got a flight, no itinerary!!), and need some hints...but I'm constantly reading others' trip reports on what they already did because I LOVE all the pictures!!!

Anyway, I'm so sorry about your kitty -- that must have been so hard to go through so quickly.

Hi, Danielle!! I'm really sorry about Hobbes...I'm a veterinarian here in Brasil and I know how difficult it is to cope w/ the loss of a loved animal...but let's talk of happier times...I'm really interested on reading your plans...so far, it seems great!!.I also LOVE Carousel of Progress, one of my favorites, too!!.I'm going to WDW in december,I'm really excited!!! Hope you have a nice trip,can't wait to read your TR!!! Tania

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Thanks for joining first official reader! I'm hoping to post my day three plans soon. Carousel of Progress is one of my guilty pleasures. I just like the attraction, and I think it's a good way to take some time out and relax when in the park.

Hi, Danielle -- you have a great Pre-trip report! Which is to say, you've got all the makings of having a future Trip Report, and maybe that's why you have some readers but not many post'ers... If you had posted on the Pre-trip report area, you might have had more responses on what you were planning to do, since people reading those threads are interested in the planning aspect.

I'll admit I SHOULD be there myself, since I've made some plans like you (3-4 days, got a flight, no itinerary!!), and need some hints...but I'm constantly reading others' trip reports on what they already did because I LOVE all the pictures!!!

Anyway, I'm so sorry about your kitty -- that must have been so hard to go through so quickly.

In your furbaby's honor, you've got some great plans!!!

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Yeah, I totally admit that I should have done a Pre-Trip report, but I guess I'm too lazy.

The itinerary I make is only an outline. I am still a go with the flow person when I need to be, and I think it may be necessary to be with the Thanksgiving crowds.

All right, so it's time for our day three itinerary. I am so stoked because it's only two more weeks until we leave. Woo hoo!

November 27, 2010 - Epcot

Our plan on this day is likely to just have breakfast at the resort before heading off to Epcot. Most likely will use a snack credit for breakfast on this day, because at this point we should have two counter service credits left. I want to arrive at Epcot at open. We want to accomplish the following:

Soarin'
Spaceship Earth
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Journey into Your Imagination with Figment
Captain EO (I'm so stoked about this, it's such a throwback to being a kid!)
Maelstrom
Gran Fiesta Tour
The American Adventure

Mission Space and Test Track we will do only if we have time. They are not must do's for us, but I do love them. I also want to go to a lot of the movies throughout the world showcase, because I have not done those in some time. I also want to spend some time touring the world. La Cava has become a to do for me so I can get my margarita!

We have not decided exactly what we want to do for lunch and dinner. I did mention to my mom that I wanted to try the Tangierine Cafe, because we've never eaten there before. Marrakesh is one of my favorite table service restaurants, so my thought is that I'll like the counter service. As for our 2nd meal of the day, we thought maybe the new counter service in Mexico, but we're not set in stone.

Our plan at this point is just to spend the entire day in Epcot. So, maybe we can do Soarin' twice. I'm not holding my breath, but that would be nice.

Because this is our last day, and we fly out very early Sunday morning, when we get back to the resort, that will be our time to pack so we're all ready to go bright and early in the morning!

Just a few more days and I should be able to do online check in and put in my requests for the resort.

Now is about the time I need to make my packing list and begin packing. I'm obsessive when it comes to packing. I'm constantly paranoid that I'm going to forget something, and I am also constantly accused by members of my family (DAD), that I can't pack light to save my life.

It's true, I don't pack light. But am I the only one that thinks that women are forced to do this, because we have to use so many tools to make ourselves presentable. Well, at least I do. It takes some plaster and spackle to get me presentable in the morning!

Sorry about Hobbes, that is always a difficult decision to make and I know the loss is a difficult one. Sounds like you have a great trip planned!
I can't wait to hear how it goes. My daughter and I are going 11/18-11/23 and are staying at Pop too.

Sorry about Hobbes, that is always a difficult decision to make and I know the loss is a difficult one. Sounds like you have a great trip planned!
I can't wait to hear how it goes. My daughter and I are going 11/18-11/23 and are staying at Pop too.

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Ha ha, we'll miss each other by one day! I hope you two have a great time. Planning trips is my favorite thing to do, and I've been told so many times that I really should have been a travel agent.